Hello! Welcome to our first blog post! We are excited to be on the web and to be able to reach out to all of you students in an easy way.
I guess we should start by asking: do you know what the Center for Civic Engagement does on campus? If you do, hooray! You're one step ahead of the others. If you don't, please keep reading this post!
The Center for Civic Engagement is dedicated to building relationships between the students of our university and the rest of the Springfield community. Plain and simple: we work with community members to promote change and we're excited about it! And you should be, too!
We have created a number of service opportunities and if we don't have what you're looking for, we will work with you to make that opportunity possible. Some of the service opportunities currently available are:
Alternative Fall Break: This year we are doing three separate Alternative Fall Break "trips," all located in Springfield. Fall Break takes place Columbus Day Weekend (Oct. 12-15). We will be working with Greater Springfield Habitat for Humanity, The Children's Study Home, and organizations surrounding issues of Food Security. Drop by our office for an application!
Alternative Spring Break: Taking place over Spring Break in March, a series of different trips to perform service all over the country engage students and create lasting bonds and memories. This year, we have four different trips: Youth Villages (Memphis, TN), Urban Tree Connection (Philadelphia, PA), Beans and Rice (Pulaski, VA) and a Civil Rights Tour (Atlanta, GA, Birmingham, AL and Memphis and Nashville, TN.). Applications are due Friday, October 25th!
5A Tutoring/Mentoring: This program takes place every Monday and Wednesday in Emerson 102A from 6 pm - 7:30 pm! Children from local sports teams come to receive help with their homework, play games and have a personal mentor.
Tutoring at the SHARP Boy's Home: Every Thursday from 4-6 pm we provide transportation for a small group of students to tutor at-risk boys at a local school. After tutoring, we all play basketball. This program runs the entire year and we're looking for a few more people to join our group!
Tutoring at Zanetti Montessori School: This tutoring opportunity is available every day, Monday-Friday, at the Zanetti After School Program. Hours are 3:30 pm - 5:30 pm. You get to choose what days you work! Build your own schedule!
Civic Engagement 101 Workshops: These workshops take place on specific weekends, both Saturday and Sunday from 9am-5pm (roughly). One day consists of learning about service and taking a tour of Springfield, while the second day consists of doing a couple service activities within Springfield. The next workshops will be on November 9th & 10th and November 16th and 17th. Click the links to sign up!!
All of our service opportunities can be used for the very much procrastinated LBC requirement! Sign up with your friends and get involved in the community! Make your LBC easy and fun! Some of these can also be used for Work Study!! It pays to be involved!! And if this doesn't meet your fancy, check out our webpage for more info!
